Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 856

After Yuan Tan retreated to Qingyang City, Cao Jun came and surrounded the city and attacked from all sides.

Although Qingyang City is a large city, because it is located in the hinterland of Jizhou, the city defenses are very average and the city walls are not high. Under the attack of Cao Jun, it quickly became invincible.

In ancient times, it was difficult to attack a city only if the defenders were well prepared and had sufficient personnel. Today, Qingyang City is short of supplies and does not have such conditions. Yuan Tan personally climbed to the top of the city to command, and he was able to repel Cao's army. , persisted until dark.

The next day, Cao's army slowed down its offensive and began to use psychological tactics. Many letters were shot into the city with arrows, and rumors began to spread among the soldiers.

In fact, strictly speaking, this strategy is useless under normal circumstances, because almost all the soldiers are illiterate, and those who can read are from good families. These are almost middle-level generals, and they will not pass these things around.

However, there is one group that has the ability and willingness to spread the word, and that is the Taiping Taoists hidden among the soldiers.

When Yuan Tan recruited troops in Qingzhou, he did not deliberately or have the ability to investigate the background of the soldiers. He had already mixed in many Taiping Taoists who were biased towards Cao Cao. These people were more or less literate because of the spread of their doctrines.

Moreover, he also had a tendency to spread rumors and favor Cao Jun, so what happened outside the city gradually spread privately.

From this point of view, in fact, the best choice for recruiting soldiers in this era is honest people who are illiterate, so as to prevent the military morale from wavering to the greatest extent. A situation like Yuan Xi's situation where all the soldiers are literate is really an outlier among the outliers.

Yuan Tan also heard the news outside the city that was not true or false. When he heard that Guo Tu was dead, but Cao Jun claimed that he was killed by Yuan Tan in revenge, he became furious. What Cao Cao did was so shameless!

"If possible, let him find a way to bring my daughter back."

Xin Ping, who was on the side, also felt sad about the death of a rabbit and a fox. He said loudly: "Cao Cao is going to kill everyone. It is not easy to defend the city now, so Jun should be prepared for the worst. Do you want to ask for help from Master Xianyi?"

"Besides, Cao Cao is well prepared and will not let the news get out easily, but he underestimates me too much."

Xin Ping just wanted to dissuade him, but he heard Yuan Tan say: "When the war starts, you take my family and others and break out to the north."

Yuan Tan was so angry that he wanted to scold him, but then he thought of his situation and said dejectedly: "Zhongzhi is right, how can a defeated general be brave?"

Yuan Tan's face froze, "You want me to bow to him?"

Xin Ping was speechless. At this time, he also risked his life and said: "Don't you see that this is what Duke Yuan is to Yuan Gongdao, and what Cao Cao is to the Cao family?"

"How much food is left in the city?"

Yuan Tan shook his head and said, "If you ask me to bow to that bastard, I can't do it."

"Cao Cao thought I would be trapped, but I decided to do the opposite!"

Xin commented: "Your Majesty must not be discouraged. The people in the city are loyal to your Majesty. We may not have no chance!"

"But he does have a lot of affection for the Yuan family, so I can only shamelessly entrust him with the funeral arrangements."

Yuan Tan sighed in his heart, Xin Ping was just comforting himself. Rumors spread so quickly in the city, and he didn't know how many of them were Cao Cao's insiders. He thought for a moment and said, "It's already too late even if you send him a letter asking for help now." .”

Xin Ping was startled, "I must not do it, you must go together."

"I don't even take Yuan Shang seriously, let alone him."

But Yuan Tan knew that Cao Cao's move was extremely vicious. In this way, the communication channel between himself and Cao Cao would be completely cut off. It would be difficult for his daughter to come back, and she might also encounter very bad things. Cao Cao should have used this method to undermine his will to defend the city.

"Liu Bei and Sun Ce started from humble beginnings. Now the competition for the world depends on strength. Who knows where a hero is from?"

Xin Ping said solemnly: "It will only take a day or two."

Yuan Tan stood up and said: "I have made up my mind to let the soldiers have a good meal tomorrow and go out of the city to attack Cao Cao's army!"

"Whether you can escape depends on your luck."

Xin Ping quickly agreed, and Yuan Tan laughed at himself: "I really think too much. It would be great if he doesn't hate me. Why would he help me?"

"But you guys have no grievances against him, so he should still be able to accept you."

Xin Ping wanted to dissuade him, but Yuan Tan waved his hand and said, "Okay!"

"If Zhong Zhi still cares about my kindness, help me deal with the aftermath!" Xin Ping's eyes turned red after hearing this, and he bowed deeply to Yuan Tan.

Early the next morning, Cao Cao held discussions with the generals in the camp. This time he did not send troops to attack Qingyang, but only sent a small group of troops to insult and harass, weakening the morale of the city.

He has received news that the city is running out of food, and morale will collapse in a few days.

Moreover, no one has time to save Yuan Tan now, and there is no news of the fierce tiger going south from the north. This is because Cao Cao consciously led Yuan Xi towards Yecheng.

He sent Xiahou Dun and others to flood the city, causing Yecheng's people to collapse. After learning about it, Fierce Tiger would definitely give priority to rescuing Yecheng and had no time to take care of Yuan Tan's side.

That's why Cao Cao dared to attack Yuan Xi at this time. The timing was extremely precise. Even if Yuan Xi reacted, he wouldn't arrive in time!

Everyone looked relaxed and was arranging matters after the city was captured, when they heard the sky falling apart outside the camp, and the shouts of killing came like a tsunami. Within a moment, the shouts of killing and the symphony of weapons came very close to the camp gate. .

Cao Cao didn't know that this was a counterattack in the city, and he felt uneasy. If Yuan Jun, the fierce tiger, arrived, he would be in big trouble!

He quickly asked the generals of Cao's camp to lead the troops to fight, and he took his counselors to the high buildings in the camp and looked into the distance. As expected, it was Yuan Tan who led troops to raid his base camp.

He turned back and sighed: "As expected, the Yuan family is not a fuel-efficient lamp. He didn't even think about escaping, but instead attacked, which made me suffer a lot."

"But the opponent doesn't have many troops. Since he wants to win by one point, I will let him know the gap between the two sides!"

However, the bravery of Yuan Tan's army was far beyond Cao Cao's expectation. He saw from a high place that Yuan Tan's army divided into two groups and attacked Cao Cao's camp from two directions.

Cao Jun did not expect that Yuan Tan would dare to go out of the city to take the initiative to fight decisively, and was caught off guard and the formation was on the verge of collapse. Even if Cao Ren Yu Jin and other generals came out of the city to resist, it could only slightly alleviate the decline. However, Cao Jun in the front line has always been in danger, and there is a possibility of a complete collapse at any time.

Seeing his own cavalry in the hands of General Cao, not only failed to contain Yuan Tan's soldiers, but were forced to have no way out by the formation of his troops, Cao Cao almost wanted to curse, these people's ability to command the cavalry was beyond comparison. There is an obvious gap between Cao Chun and Cao Chun. If Cao Chun were here, he would definitely not be in such a mess!

He saw that the Hubao Cavalry was blocked at the entrance of the camp, rushing left and right and unable to find a way. He couldn't bear it anymore, so he got off the wooden building and rode out, shouting at the same time: "I will personally command the Hubao Cavalry!"

Under the desperate protection of Xu Chu and others, Cao Cao took over the command of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry and ordered them to return the horses to the camp for resettlement. Then all the troops dismounted and fought on foot, cooperating with Cao's infantry to push back Yuan Tan's infantry.

The two sides saw each other several times, but in the end Yuan Tan's soldiers could not resist the numerically superior offensive of Cao's army and were forced to retreat. Cao's army took advantage of the situation and pressed forward, clearing the road in front of the camp.

At this time, Cao Cao ordered the tiger and leopard cavalry to remount their horses, rushed out of the camp as quickly as possible, and circled the flanks of Yuan Tan's army to harass. Yuan Tan saw through the telescope that cavalry were constantly pouring out of Cao's camp. Knowing that the success was in vain, he immediately ordered the crossbows Turning his hand to the side, he fired arrows at Cao Jun's cavalry.

The strong bows and crossbows of Yuan Tan's army were the advantages of the Jizhou soldiers. With this outburst, the tiger and leopard cavalry horses were caught off guard and fell in large numbers. Even Cao Cao in the middle was almost affected. He quickly ordered the tiger and leopard cavalry to stay away from Yuan Tan. Formation, and then find the route.

However, he changed the direction of attack several times, but was blocked by Yuan Tan's arrow formation. Yuan Tan's army took the opportunity to attack Cao's army's formation. People on both sides continued to fall, which made Cao Cao's heart bleed.

He really miscalculated this time. He originally thought that the siege would slowly drain Yuan Tan's army's fighting spirit, but he didn't expect Yuan Tan to jump over the wall in a hurry and cause himself such heavy casualties!

At this time, other generals from Cao's camp also came out one after another. Li Dianlejin and others also tried to surround Yuan Tan's army from another direction. Yuan Tan saw this and gave orders for other soldiers to turn around and collided with them.

He originally planned to fight Cao Cao this time, without planning a way out. Now the soldiers have been completely thrown into the center of the battlefield by him, and they can't escape even if they want to. At this time, morale is meaningless. The soldiers are waving their weapons just to If they live for an extra moment and a half, they will no longer be able to think about the future!

The battlefield outside Qingyang City turned into a huge meat grinder. Yuan Tan and Cao Jun's combined thirty to forty thousand people were turning into corpses at every moment.

The corpse fell to the ground and was trampled into a shapeless mass by the crowd that came up. The flesh and blood mixed with soil seeped into the ground, and the disgusting smell of blood and feces filled everyone's nostrils.

The generals of Cao's army all looked ugly. This battle was so ugly and frustrating!

As time passed, Cao Cao's face gradually turned ugly when he saw that his own commander, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, could not change the situation on the battlefield.

At this time, a general came to Cao Cao and said: "Ming Gong, I am willing to lead a hundred tigers and leopards to charge into the formation. If we fail, we will pay for it with our lives!"

When Cao Cao saw it, he saw that it was Cao Xiu, his own clansman, who had been serving as the tiger and leopard cavalry guard. However, because Cao Chun had previously led the army, his reputation was not obvious. However, taking action now showed that Cao Xiu was at least very responsible.

Cao Cao said happily: "Okay!"

"I'll give you two hundred men! You don't have to kill the enemy general, as long as you can tear apart the enemy's formation!"

"I'll let Xu Chu help you!"

Cao Xiu immediately accepted the order and led the tiger and leopard cavalry with Xu Chu to attack the left flank of Yuan Tan's army.

I have to say that Cao Xiu was really lucky. Peng An was supervising the formation along the way. He was taking the lead when he saw hundreds of cavalry charging towards him in a menacing manner.

Before he could react, Cao Xiu and Xu Chu rushed forward, one on the left and the other on the right to double-team Peng An.

(End of this chapter)